Chapter 763: Captive

In his bedroom, Li Huowang cautiously pulled back the starry curtain and looked outside, checking for any suspicious gazes.

After ensuring everything was calm outside, he nodded to Yang Na, who was behind him. "All clear. Let's go!"

"Mom! Na Na and I are eating out, so you don't need to make dinner for us."

"Eating out again?" Sun Xiaoqin, who had been dancing in front of a phone stand, rolled up her sleeves and walked to the door, watching them leave.

She couldn't help but feel a little envious. "Oh, it's true what they say: once you have a wife, you forget your mother."

Despite her words, Sun Xiaoqin was quite happy. Her son was becoming more like his peers lately, with a growing desire to play and have fun.

The two arrived at the community entrance, quickly scanned for two shared bicycles, and set off for their gathering point.

The location was still Juzizhou, but it was no longer the top floor of the abandoned building. Instead, it was a half-built basement within a villa. The reason for choosing the basement was simply that they had won their last encounter with those entities and had taken some captives.

When Li Huowang and Yang Na arrived at the entrance, they exchanged a few words with Chen Hongyu, who was guarding the door, and then went inside.

As soon as he entered, Li Huowang saw Qing Wanglai talking to someone tied to a stool.

"It doesn't sound like English, and it might not even be an Indo-European language," Yang Na whispered to Li Huowang. She pulled out her phone, intending to record their conversation.

Li Huowang walked over to Qing Wanglai and looked at the bearded man on the stool. "How's the conversation going?"

"Sigh, not very well," Qing Wanglai said, his brows furrowed. "They're highly vigilant. No matter what I say, they won't let down their guard, let alone negotiate."

Beside them, Wu Qi, who was rummaging through the captives' belongings, added, "These people all have diplomatic passports bought from a poor island nation. Their identities are fake, so there aren't many clues here."

"How about your end? Is anyone still monitoring you in the community?" Qing Wanglai asked Li Huowang.

Hearing this, Li Huowang's expression visibly relaxed; the previous tension was gone. "No, it's gone. Ever since we raided their hideout, that feeling of being watched hasn't reappeared. It seems they were indeed the ones monitoring me before!"

Li Huowang glared at the line of men tied up in the corner. Because of them, he had constantly been suspicious and mistaken for a mentally ill person. Now, it seemed he was perfectly sane.

"However, these are all men. I remember there was a woman with an umbrella among them who wasn't caught."

"It's inevitable that a few would escape; it's harmless. As long as most of them are in our hands, we have leverage for negotiation." After saying this, Qing Wanglai continued his conversation with the bearded man tied to the stool.

Li Huowang walked up to the captives, carefully examining their faces, trying to identify those who had kidnapped him earlier. However, some time had passed, and Li Huowang had some difficulty distinguishing foreign faces, so he couldn't tell if any of the kidnappers were among them.

The captives clearly didn't know what Li Huowang was doing, but a hint of fear appeared on each of their faces as he approached. Li Huowang's previous fierce actions had left a deep impression on their minds.

"Hey! Someone's here." Hearing Chen Hongyu's voice, everyone in the room looked towards the basement entrance.

Soon, a familiar face appeared before Li Huowang: Zhao Lei. His eyes darted around, and his expression was a bit awkward, but he remained standing there, showing no intention of leaving.

"You're back?"

Qing Wanglai walked over to Zhao Lei, gently patted his shoulder, then put an arm around him and turned to the others, announcing, "Come on, let's give a round of applause to welcome back our old comrade. Without his help, we wouldn't have been able to capture these people."

Amidst scattered applause, Zhao Lei's previous betrayal was quietly forgiven and compensated for by his service.

However, Li Huowang didn't give him a warm reception. It was hard to trust someone who had betrayed both sides.

Zhao Lei also seemed uncomfortable facing the comrades he had once betrayed, but he ignored the strange looks from around him and stayed put, brazenly.

"You've had contact with them before; why don't you give it a try?" Qing Wanglai gestured towards the bearded man tied to the stool.

Zhao Lei nodded. However, as soon as he approached and before he could utter a word, the bearded man spat a mouthful of saliva at him and passionately said something. Although Li Huowang couldn't understand what the man was saying, it wasn't hard to guess that they were extremely nasty curses.

When Zhao Lei retreated, Li Huowang approached him. "See? No matter which side, traitors are always treated this way."

Zhao Lei didn't mind Li Huowang's sarcasm. He nervously looked around. "Where's Qian Fu?"

"He's tied up. We're waiting for his original personality to return."

Just as Li Huowang expected Zhao Lei to continue the conversation on that topic, Zhao Lei nervously leaned close to him and whispered, "Do you still really believe this is real? After all these strange things, do you still think it's true?"

"Hmm?" Li Huowang looked at Zhao Lei with confusion, thinking to himself, "What's wrong with this guy?"

With that thought, Li Huowang walked away to avoid catching whatever was affecting Zhao Lei.

However, Zhao Lei suddenly grabbed Li Huowang, his expression agitated. "Think about it! Really think about it! Can this be real? How many people have died? Why haven't the police come after us? Why did we cause such a huge commotion, and no one noticed? Think about the contradictions in our details! The inconsistencies that are usually hard to spot!"

"Zhao Lei!" Qing Wanglai's voice came from behind them, his usually gentle tone now unusually stern.

Zhao Lei released Li Huowang, his eyes darting away as he took a few steps back, not saying another word to him.

"We've got things handled here, Li Huowang. Perhaps you should go back. If there's any news, I'll message you," Qing Wanglai said to Li Huowang, a faint smile on his face.

"Thanks, but no need. I don't have anything else to do anyway, and I might as well help out."

As Li Huowang spoke, he suddenly remembered something. He crouched beside the dozens of captives and began examining their fingers one by one. When he was kidnapped previously, he had bitten off two fingers of one of his captors. If that person was still alive, they should be among them.